The Greatest Generation - Weeaboo But For Klingons (DS9 S4E14)

Episode Date: May 27, 2019

When Kern makes a pit stop at the station on his way to Sto’Vo’Kor, he asks Worf for more than just gas money. But when Dax catches wind of the Klingon rite and puts a stop to it, brotherhood, Worf’s loyalty to Starfleet, and Bashir’s loyalty to the Hippocratic oath will all be tested. What kind of ice dispensers do Klingon warships have? Why doesn’t O’Brien want Kira to ‘grab the fruit’? Where’s Worf’s balls chair? It’s the episode where the pool water gets thicc.

Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey friends of Disodo. Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry. If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life. Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,

they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take. Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal discussions about how best to stand with the unions and we are continuing those conversations in a dynamic situation. We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines are in these digital spaces,

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and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecisoto for labor.com. That's friendsofdisoto for labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! The god of the event, the event of the world. Command of Benjamin, since great veterans will start facing it. In Space Night. Welcome to the greatest generation, a Star Trek podcast.

By a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast, I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica. I have an embarrassing admission, Adam. This is going to be a weird episode. Wow, OK. I watched the first 15 minutes of this episode two weeks ago.

Ooh. And then, and I think what happened was we were gonna sit down and record two episodes. And I was just starting in on this episode. And you were like, hey, dude, there's no way I can do two today. We've gotta do one. So I was like, hey, dude, there's no way I can do two today. We've got to do one. So I was like, oh, fuck it. I won't finish this episode. I'll just, I'll just like rewatch it later. But then I forgot that I had made that decision. And Netflix or whatever told you that this,

like, like they marked it as complete. Yeah, I do not, I have no loyalty on the streaming service I used to watch, Deep Space Nine. You're a streaming whore. I bounce back and forth. I sometimes watch it on CBS All Access. You're a streaming sex worker. That was, that was not the right thing to say.

Yeah. Are you a person who hand writes notes for the show because the reason that I always know what episode we're doing is because I use the notes app and I always I always have that organized in in order of season and Adam I'm so organized I never forget anything that's not what I said or how I said it. I did have notes and I... You know what it is? Ben? It's, I'm Adam.

I can't remember anything because my brain is fucking dumb. So I need to write every fucking thing down. So I don't look like an idiot in front of my wife and my friends. That's actually what's happening here. I looked at my notebook and there was like, what looked to be a full amount of notes for season four episode 14?

And so I said, I must be on season four episode 15 and I watched that first thing this morning and then I watched episode 16. So I'm actually ahead, but I was sitting down and I realized like, oh shit, like I'm not ahead and I had to scramble and watch the last 35 minutes of this episode. So I don't really remember how the beginning part goes.

You might have to, I might lean on you for plot synopsis in that part. I got you. This is all in service of something important though. Oh, okay. More important than the show. It's in service of the fact that you just turned 40 and we were going on a trip to celebrate your birthday.

Oh yeah. That's why I was crunched for time. That's why you were crunched for time. Yeah, that's true. We were recording right up against our out day. So yeah, yeah, that was a thing. Those were heady times. Your birthday made me as sick as I have ever felt. I don't know how to take that. Your actual birthday was super fun, but we were in Mexico and I caught something, probably

a food-related pathogen got into me and the day after I was super duper sick. Yeah, a lot of speculation about what exactly happened, but like many trips to Mexico. My wife thinks it's a moral failing on my part. She's just happy that she didn't have to dad your touch. Of course, that trip. You were too sick. Performance. She definitely had the like was taking care of me, but also was like, what? You're fucking sick. Oh, come on. Well Well, I mean I cuz it was like initially it seemed like I just had a bad hangover, you know I mean that was the speculation. I'll tell you the speculation from the group was boy

Ben really went for it last night what the fuck? And I say that not in a at the time of the partying you were acting out of control or anything It was just like only in retrospect if did we truly understand the depravity that you were into at the time. I didn't get out of control and I didn't drink particularly more or less than anybody else, I don't think. No, that's what I'm saying. So the next day, we were all like, wow, he must have had a lot more than we thought, because that was...

Yeah, that was... Must have been sneaking butt shots of rice here. I mean, there was a lot of pool drinking happening. I'll give you my theory, Ben, was that you drank pool water on accident. That pool water was pretty heinous. Because the pool water, for a lot of the trip, fairly cloudy by virtue of all of the pool water for a lot of the trip fairly cloudy. Yeah. By virtue of all of the pool drinking we were doing and that once you filled up the pool with our entire party of people, it was pretty full.

It was like hot tub filled. Mmm. Yeah, that's what you want. You want a thick pool. Well, you got a thick pool, baby. That was a great, great time and I'm so glad that you and your wife were there to celebrate my big milestone. It was amazing, and it was really fun to be there with you and all your friends. Like the group of people you have in your life is really great, and it felt really special to get to participate in that.

Well, you're in the perspective. For zero, man. Big year. Yeah, right. I, you know, before, during and now, doesn't quite feel like it. Like, I just feel like we had a great big party in a fun place and that my age was sort of inconsequential. But I'm really glad everyone was there and you guys especially. It was super fun.

That was great, man. Well, do you want to get into this episode that I'm going to vaguely remember what happened in? Yeah, why not? Let's do it. It's a it's steep space nine season four episode 14 Suns of Mogue No, of course you don't this one starts with war fighting swords with dax and I remember this is being pretty steamy. You're not wrong because it's the sort of fighting that happens in a Conan film, where there's like a lot of close-up swordplay and swordplay

to the degree that like you're close enough to kiss the person you're swordfighting with. Sometimes, that kind of thing. Here's the question. That would be a great way to distract an enemy. I feel like. Yeah, you just go for some smoochin. Just plant one on them.

Hey! This is clearly a hollow, sweet program, and we know this because at the end of the scene you hear a door called for an ador appearing. The sound effect of it though is a enterprise arch appearance and ador open which I thought was a little incongruent for a for a hollow suite. Do you think that they just knew that we would know what that sound meant, but not necessarily. There's an analogous sound for a Ferengy Hollow Suite, but we just haven't learned what that is. I think so. They couldn't lean on that.

It's like you either have to show it or use a sound effect, right? Yeah. And if you are two thirds of the way through a season and you're starting to scrutinize your budget and the line producer kind of way. You're probably just gonna play the sound effect at this point and not throw to arch. Yeah, it's like it's either a $10,000 special effect or something that's essentially free.

Yeah, yeah. Ben, I was wondering if like like, from all we know about war, if he's a guy who does his calisthenics with the safety's off, do you think that those are the settings he uses with DACs? Like, what would happen if a mechleth went into a shoulder blade here? Is that?

Oh, a human female would not be strong enough for my calisthenics program? Like what if he what if he inadvertently C sectioned the ankylas or it just goes out of the Would that be the grossest thing ever to happen in Star Trek? What if the what if the angliaser comes flying out, but then like lands in a three-point stance, like a superhero, and then starts kicking ass and taking out NPCs? It's wet and it lands in the sand,

and then it's just, it's so dirty. You'll never get it clean again. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's like a sneaker that you wear on the beach. This feels like the beginning of something between DAX and Wurf, and it makes me wonder whatever happened to Wurf and Troy, which was like the last hot and heavy relationship

that Wurf had. There was no moment to write that out. Yeah, yeah. I wonder, is there a... I mean, I'm all for this, Dax' worth shit, but I do feel like maybe in the last episode, you could have just had some like, like, Sins' counselor Troy dumped me via subspace message.

Who does that? Without honor. I cried out to the heavens to let them know a warrior's relationship was coming. Let's still record know that a warrior is single. Special moment in this episode, Ben, because it's Makt overfest time for Kern, which means it's all you can eat gach and a $1 blood wine, Alma. Yeah, Quark is wearing later hosin then at the quark's bar to get in the team of things. If only we had the klingon restaurant there still, right?

This would be perfect. Oh, that guy was great. And put him in later hosin, that would be very exciting. Yeah, yeah, I kind of skipped ahead a little bit because a colon has boarded the station drunk. Yeah. And he gets, Worf gets called out if it's how a sweet program to go meet him. And he gets called out of like an almost about to put a kiss on DAX in order to go meet

Karen. Yeah, kind of kiss this interruptus. And yeah, Karen, Karen is a very angry dude. Nisobo, go! It's easy. None of us, Corrin's is going to hurt you. The deal is, Kern has been sort of, has been sort of blindsided by all of the super high level political decisions that Wurf has been a party to.

And what's happened is that the House of Mog has fallen into fairly ill repute. That's right. But not joining Galron in the Klingon War, he brought great shame upon his family. So much shame that the Klingon government took away their seat on the high council, took away their land, and took away their ships. So Kern is pretty pissed off about this. Justifiably I think. You get a couple of things with Kern when he shows up in a certain place, especially a place

where Warf is. He makes fun of the textiles and everything that Warf interacts with. Like, he hates his food, he hates his clothes, he hates his couch. He really thinks that Warf has gone soft and... He's looking around for that turkey dinner. He's basically saying you've got to check your starfleet privilege like these decisions you're making are splashing over on me and I'm fucked. And I have no honor anymore and it's all your fault and the only way you can make it

up to me is by dipping a knife in some poison and sticking it into me. You were totally right earlier by saying that Kern's gripe is sound, and it sort of fucked that Wurf makes all these decisions without considering Kern at all. Wurf makes decisions without considering Alexander or Troy for that matter. Right. Wurf is a bad person. Yeah, I think we're starting to...

From a certain read. Yeah, we're starting to construct a thesis that goes like that, right? I think this episode is a lot about him kind of confronting that, but I'm not sure, I mean, we'll get into it, but I'm not sure. Like, I mean, how about just the fact that he gives Kern a glass of unrefidurated green shartruse as a hangover cure. For your head. Does that work? I know you.

You're a chartreuseman from back in the day. I love chartreuse, but I would never drink it the morning after. Yeah, a big warm glass of it just sounds very syrupy and not refreshing. Yeah, I'm not really sure like what the most traditional way to drink shirt truces, but I like it with a big piece of ice. I also like it that way. I mean this class, it looks like a great glass, like a nice square-sided rock's

glass and you put like a big giant large format ice cube in there with some shirt truces. That would be great. on hangover morning, but it would be a great drink. You know, Kern is complaining about that large format ice too. Hahahaha! Hahahaha! This is not the ice of a warrior, which has- Your federation to Inch Ice Cube with no cloudiness, because you have removed all of the air and impurities.

The D7 Ice Machine famously dispenses Pibble Ice, the ice of a Bordier. It crutches so pleasantly. I love Tony Todd in this episode, man. Yeah, he's the fucking best. And he sort of writes over the tape that was the old Jake Cisco episode of earlier in the season. Like this is, this is peak Tony Todd. This is what he needs to be doing. He doesn't need to slum it with old Jake Cisco.

I mean, I love that Tony Todd, like an actor of the caliber of Tony Todd is like a recurring Yeah guest actor on this show and they're and they have Strategies for putting him in multiple different characters like you want to strategically deploy Tony Todd Yeah, it's one of the great things about Star Trek. Yeah, I like that. He's he's sort of there You know remember like the Rushmore players. He's like a he's he's like the Philipsy More Hoffman of Deep Space Nine. He's great. So we cut to O'Brien and Kira doing a runabout mission.

And I really liked their kind of like the Kira trying to get to get a lay flat bed in the in the front of the run about. I love her improvised lay flat. That's fun. Yeah. That's good. It's impressive that these run about seats can do that. She puts in a hard eight hours of sleep up there too. I'm shocked. I didn't. There are a bunch in the back of the run about. shocked. I didn't. There are a bunch in the back of the runabout. That's great, but she probably just wanted to remain vigilant, you know. Yeah, she's a little worried about going back there and getting great big long fingernails. So you think what I'm sure that rumor went around the D after that mission was over, right? And you know, Brian told Kira, oh, yeah, she's like walking back there and it's like,

you know, you could get great big long fingernails if you go back there. I'd recommend not grabbing the fruit. Stairclair to fruit bowl. They don't get long to talk about the fruit bowls or anything else because a mystery space banger gets dropped on them. It's like a what was that and they're scanning it. And it seems like an explosion that happened really close and we're really close to the Jordan space, but it does not add up. And they started to speculate that a cloak ship

might have exploded. So they scan for life forms, Ben. They scan and scan to love. I love doing that. I even sing a little song when I when I do that Adam. I know Yeah, no life forms You precious little life forms You tiny little life forms where are you?

My preference would be for no backing music there just just you singing that into the void the void that is my unsmiling face oh man thought we were pals the coronar decloaks to tell them that there's nothing to see here guys. We're doing a war game So you guys can just fuck right off. This is none of your business and it's like the like we're following the letter Not the spirit of International treaties kind of thing like we've given you the one warning we are required by law to give you and if you If you hang around any longer we're gonna fucking kill you.

It's a real throwback to old Star Trek. The iceiness between the Federation and the Klingons is very pronounced here. It's back, baby! Yeah, it's like a Star Trek 6 level of iceiness. There will be no dinners on Deep Space 9 plan. Yeah. Sure, Cruz ought to be outlawed. Oh, anyone reading a radiation surge? Oh, the size of Kern's head, evidently. Oh, the size of Kern's head.

DAX heads down to her customary hot and heavy mechleth fight with Wharf, which is apparently now a routine bit of business. And Gork is preparing a couple of hangover curers. And he's like, oh yeah, Worse not here. He was asking about some kind of incense that I could not procure from him aside from replicated and that turned into a little bit of a kerfuffle. This was more than a standard, Rivenus. And that DAX is like, oh, okay, well, I'll keep looking.

DAX does that thing where she's like, hey, computer, where's Wurf right now? And the computer says that Wurf is in his quarters and that Kern is with him. Yeah. I don't think that that's right that the computer can just tell you who is with a person. It seems like a like Kern would have a right to privacy at some level. Right. Well, she hasn't even gotten like because when she she was there when Wurf got the call from Odo, but it was just, as far as she knows, he was just called away to deal with some clingon. But when she bumps into Odo on the promenade, he's like, oh yeah, it was this guy Kurn, who's apparently Worf's brother. And that's when she realizes the significance of the incense. Right, because Dex is a collector of Klingon trivia and cultural knowledge.

And so she's added the Don G incense to the current appearance and that equals Wurf is going to ceremonially kill him. Yeah, she's kind of a wee a boo, but for Klingon. And when she hears about this incense and hears about Wurf's brother, she puts two and two together very quickly. And we smash cut to Worf's quarters where he is preparing the ritual blade to plunge into

holy shit, the lofiest chest I think we've ever seen. Yeah. And like, it's sort of in the dark a little bit, so you can't make it out completely, but wow, that is a real thing. Boy, I also went back to see if this was the same suicide knife that Worf had on the D. It's not. Yeah, this is like a nicer, a nicer, more symmetrical blade. Doesn't seem like he poisoned dipped it also.

Like that would have been a nice precaution against what happens, which is that Dax and Otto bust in and Kern has been stabbed, but they, you know, beam him immediately to the infirmary and Otto, uh, Otto, let's worth no, like, hey, if we dies, that's going to be a murder charge on you, Bub. This is going to sound like faint praise. I don't mean it like that. I so rarely feel very surprised watching this show, but I was very surprised when Warf stabbed his brother here.

I thought for sure that Dax would get there in time to prevent it. Yeah, you thought she was going to beat the buzzer. and a wolf stabbed his brother here. I thought for sure that Dax would get there in time to prevent it. Yeah, he thought she was gonna beat the buzzer. Yeah, but she does not. You know what else really surprised me about this scene? We go to a wide shot of wolf's quarters. He did not keep that weird chair. We moved.

No. I think that you make a choice like that in your home decor that you're going to stick to your guns, but apparently he took the opportunity leaving the D to unburden himself of the weird chair. I wonder if the ball's chair went up for auction after TNG ended and they just lost it at that point. Did it go down with the D when it crashed on that planet? Oh shit, you know what it did.

You know it did. Worf's ball's chair is somewhere on Floridian 3 right now. Just like the jungle, like totally overgrowing the saucer. You know it's crazy, like I wonder whatever happened to the saucer. Did know, it's crazy. I wonder whatever happened to the saucer. Did they go back and get it and salvage it they had to have, right?

That's like, that's legit. That's valuable federation material right there. We talked about how the Moriarty computer chip is probably involved in that crash, right? Yeah. So like, and there's a million other little objects that got created and squirreled away over the course of that show. God, I know this man. I cannot believe that they never did anything with that on DS9 or in Voyager or anything else. That ship is so iconic.

You know there are galaxy class models around. I think that one of the most fun things in the newer Disney Star Wars movies is seeing planets where an entire Star Destroyer is decaying, you know, a crash from decades ago that's still there. Yeah. That's such a cool idea. And boy, it would be fun to see the Star Trek version of that. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. Maybe they'll do that in the Picard series. God. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Hey, speaking of taking great care with props that seem like they'll be worth something someday, they do not do that with the knife that that worst stabbed a curtain with because the next shot is just it like unbagged, untagged sitting on Cisco's desk with blood still all over it. Whose fault is that? That's Odo's fault, right? Odo, you gotta bag the evidence. Yeah. That's gonna get everybody's fingerprints all over it. Worse gonna walk for this.

Yeah. The chain of custody on the prosecution's key exhibit will have been broken, and the whole case is gonna be thrown out. I am sad that the blood on the knife isn't bubble-ish-is-colored, like Star Trek 6. That always bothers me. Give me that pink blood. They didn't need to do that. The issue here is that Wurf is supposed to be head of Klingon shit on Deep Space 9, but all of his Kern drama is making him incapable of conducting that important business.

And there's some pretty intense Klingon shit going on with this whole explosions in space near Bejure situation. I think he's torn, right? He's a man in between cultures. He thinks he can get away with a ritualistic murder in his quarters, but he can't. And Cisco lights him up over this. We're not talking about some obscure technicality, Mr. Warf, you tried to commit premeditated murder.

And I thought it was very interesting to hear Cisco talk about this issue in this episode, because he's like, he's basically riding for like, isolate this man from members of his species, because they're a bad influence on him right now. I don't want to war if anywhere near other klingons right now.

For people who don't watch Star Trek Discovery for some reason, they might not get this reference, but in the episode in season two, where they return to Saroo's home planet and then like intentionally make him not a part of the mission once they're there, it feels like that. Like isolating the best person for a job, W slash R slash T their own culture. It's a it's a pretty painful thing to decide. His worth is really trying to remain cling on. Yeah.

In this episode, speaking of discovery. Yeah. Yeah. Of course he wants to remain cling on, but he also wants to remain apart from everyone. And that is attention in him, like he wants to remain clinging on but he also wants to remain apart from everyone and that is attention in him like he wants to be alone Right he makes decisions throughout this episode that that seek to other himself. I can dig it man Yeah, sometimes I never want to be around anyone. They do an interesting crosscut here

They crosscut from 10 out of 10 Cisco to super chill Cisco Talking to O'Brien and Kira and that's a little lip lashy emotionally. I love the like using the amount that Cisco has chilled out as an indicator of the passage of time. Yeah. Like what a fun cut that was. Yeah. And he's just, he's like down in the ripple mat like having a cup of coffee and

sending O'Brien and Kira out on B story stuff like go take the little D out and see if you can figure out What is going on just on the other side of the Bajoran border with these cloaked explosions? I like the assignment and I like who he has assigned to it. You know, so often you associate the little D with wharf and command. So I used to see Kira get the big chair here. Yeah.

That's what you want. And Kira knows that they have lay flat seats on the little D. So she's jumping at the opportunity. And nobody has ever grown really long fingernails grabbing the wrong bowl of fruit. Now you can have any piece of fruit you want on the little D.

Yeah. The world is your horn of plenty on the little D. Current's gonna survive his stab wound because they've stuck him in an iron lung type situation in the infirmary. Oh, I was interpreting that as like one of those pyramids that woo-woo, new AG healers use. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.

It's like a copper pyramid shape and you lie under it and it makes you feel better. I think what we can agree on is that it's a totally new piece of medical technology we're seeing deployed. I don't remember seeing this thing before. It's an obviously karnassian piece of medical technology, which I thought was interesting. Like often the doctor has the most federation-looking stuff on this show, and it's interesting that I guess maybe like this is the one that works with his biobed. I really love the composition of this scene, as they intercut between Kern in a closeup,

and kind of a medium-ish shot shooting up at Wharf with that run of lights behind him. Yeah, that's like, you rarely see the ceiling on Deep Space Nine, and this is a moment where you do. Yeah, and it's beautifully lit, also, like the, it's almost all rim light on Worf. And he has so many like lumps and bumps in his loaf that you can resolve a facial expression

despite that. Currents like, grab a triangular pillow and place it over my face. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I promise I won't scream loud enough to penetrate the foam. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Warf is like, you need a job. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha recover, and Warf is not going to help him do suicide by Warf anymore. And so, the idea is that Kern is gonna get a job as a security guy in the Bedurin militia. And I love this idea.

Like Warf has to go kind of like make the case to Odo that this is a great idea. Odo is pretty skeptical at first because Karen has a lot of notches in his belt, as they say, but not a lot of experience like doing non-lethal enforcement of rules and regulations. Yeah. Odo is reading the resume that Warf hands him from Kern, and he's like, well, Kern has some pretty strong work experience. And he knows Excel and PowerPoint, but his experience is lacking in some non-lethal area of police. I would love to see the episode Police Academy colon-curn in training.

We don't quite get that. We get to see him being kind of shadowed by Odo in his first day on the job. Hey before we get there Ben why is Odo treating Warf like shit in this scene? Like Odo goes so far as to say like you're really gonna owe me a favor asshole. And Mr. Warf, you'll find I'm a man who collects on his debts. But like why is Odo pissed at Warf? If anything, Warf should have carry over Pista feelings toward Odo for being a shitty constable from the Shikar episode, right? What's happening?

I mean, Odo did very recently watch Warf shove a knife into a guy's chest and cold blood. Oh yeah, they're really... Oh, stand there. You know, I forgot about that. All right, yeah, that makes sense. Because you're seeing it from, from Worf's point of view.

Yeah. But from Otis's point of view, that was crazy. Yeah. And that was only 15 minutes ago. Don't forget me. Just put the evidence on my desk. Nope, don't put it in that bag. Just put it on the desk.

Kern works for the glorified TSA of the station. They put him in a brown uniform like he's a UPS man. He looks like the recliner inside a man cave. In his bark-alounder get up, he's like, yeah, he's like tossing a cargo bay as... He's like... liquids smaller than three ounces. Ha ha.

Should be removed from your checked bag. Your laptop must go in a grey bin, but an iPad may remain inside your backpack. Ha ha ha. Ha ha. If you untuck your shirt so that it covers your belt, I won't notice it and make you take it off. Even if you know it won't set off the metal detector, I'll make you take it off. I don't really care about security, I care about enforcing rules. This is a pre-check line. You may keep your footwear on.

You have a series of seven S's on your boarding pass. Therefore, you have been randomly selected to go in the body scanner. Who knew we had current impression going? To go in to go in the body scanner Who knew we had current impression going that's great Where has this been our whole life? I don't know dumb Curious fun What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing now? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, They're scanning around and just like out of nowhere a Vortia class battle cruiser explodes in space in front of them like comes out of cloak as it's exploding and it's like it's kind of like that That like Americans offering Russians emergency help in a like cold-word nuclear context. You're telling me that this is a massive rescue operation

That is correct. They're like hey, can we do anything to help and they're like fuck off we don't need you I would have liked to have heard explosions in the background of this hail you know as it is the captain of this forcha class ship is like pretty calm and cool but his ship is fucked up. It looks like it rolled over into a ditch We do not require assistance at this time. Do not approach us Understood, Giovanna. His ship is is badly badly damaged lots of people getting hurt It seems like he has to check with somebody when they're like hey, we could tell you to deep space nine. He's like, okay when they're like, hey, we could tell you to deep space nine. He's like, okay.

Okay. Here is like, deploy the winch. And Chief O'Brien is like so psyched that he bought that off the aftermarket parts website for his wrangler. Yeah. Later on, Odo has the radio wharf to say that a colon is in the infirmary because he let himself get shot. He attempted suicide by Baselick, which is a pretty bad way to go.

I think we met this guy before. He's the kind of short statured captain of the ship that Kern was pressing earlier and I guess this guy pulled a piece on him when Kern discovered some contraband in this cargo hold so. What are you going to do about it? You won't shoot me, Baselic. I fucking dare you. Come on, shoot me! Shoot me right here! I'll lift up my shirt and show you my weird lofichest Yeah, and a colon is like the sort of patient at this point that's like you know Wolf my life is in your hands and when lives are in your hands, they are incredibly safe. Because that's Worf Steel, right?

Like ritualistically, you know, if you set aside the ritual from before the show opened. Every time Worf has been given the chance to kill someone in a ritualistic fashion, he chooses not to. So at this point in the episode, I felt like Kern was pretty safe. Yeah, but he's kind of on the out with his boss. Oh, it was like, hey, like we can't have a guy who is trying to get killed on on the team. Yeah. Yeah. The little D has towed the Dervana to deep space nine, and it is looking totally ratchet, parked outside the station.

Good shipgore. And I like the pan down from the ship to the station. Love it, love this. Yeah. They literally kept bashed the ship model here. They have a McLaughlin group. Is your want where they're kind of talking through what is going on with all of this cloaked explosion shit. And they're like, yeah, it kind of seems like a torpedo hit this ship, but we would have

been able to detect torpedo traces. One thing that's crazy about this episode is that everywhere they go, they're like, I don't detect any cloaked ships. It's like, yeah, that's the point of cloaking, right? Like, suddenly cloaked things have very easy to find signatures that you can scan for in space. But yeah, they come up with the idea that this is actually a minefield. And they call it a mine. A mine.

That the Klingons are surreptitiously laying. And that something went wrong with one of these mines and they accidentally bumped it with their ship. They need to figure out the coordinates for all these mines, because by virtue of their being cloaked, like, there's no way to find them unless you actually run a ship into one. Right. And Warf has the idea to use Kern and to board the Devana in order to get said coordinates. Yeah. The better idea would be Odo, but Odo and Warf are not getting along right now. I think.

Yeah, so Warf and Kern are gonna bring over there, Warf impersonating a cling on to do it. Joke. I got it. Yeah, they have to get ugly-dub a little bit. Yeah. Before going, that's fun. And they also, like, I guess they have some bodies

from the infirmary, so they're able to mimic the DNA of one of them in Worf's hand. I liked this little bit of trade graft. Yeah, me too. They're getting into their suits and current feels alive again for the first time. He likes to be in the Klingon armor and not the Bedurin pajamas. I thought for sure he was gonna find a way to get himself killed on this mission.

Like I thought that was gonna be the point of this. Yeah. Instead it's straight up and down spy mission. Wurf and Kern. Like why didn't he throw himself in front of that guy with the knife in his sleeve? Yeah, that would have been a good way to go. And let's suicide by Klingon and then it's full of honor.

Yeah. That would have been great. There to go. And let's suicide by clinging on and then it's full of honor. Yeah. That would have been great. It's a great, there's a fun scene here where, you know, there's a scene sometimes where you get like in an action film, you get someone who's not good at computers, trying to do computers. There's been on button somewhere.

Chris the Apple TV. And so Warfin' Kern are clicking around trying to find the mine location. And Warfin' Kern are clicking around trying to find the mind location. And Warfin' is like, I have found a folder called Mind Locations. And Kern' is like, you fool. You do not hide your pornography in a folder called pornography. You hide it in a folder called Work Documents. And so Kern' knows to click on something else that's not mine locations in order to get

the mine locations. Yeah, it's a, it's that super high level, clinging on trade craft. Yeah, there's always so impressive. Click on the folder called not pornography. You will find there are several subfolders that also say not pornography. All of this can be circumvented if you just search for the .avi file extension at the system level. Ha ha ha ha ha. Or in the recently downloaded list in the BitTorrent application. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ben, this is the last current episode, and it fucking sucks.

It means we're retiring our current impression, and we're not going to see current again. It's too bad. He never got to turn to warfen say, warfen, the door to Klingon society for you is as complicated as any door. So this Klingon lieutenant that catches them, like goes for warfen with a knife and Kern kills him.

And, you know, his disruptor blast leaves only a pile of mashed potatoes with a whisk sticking out of it. But on Klingon ships, they don't have that alarm that goes off. So they're able to complete the mission. Awesome. The mission goes well though enterprise. They get the mind locations. It's a real operation, Chromeite success story. And they go back to the station.

They get an adaboy from Cisco. And then they go their separate ways like Kira and O'Brien head out on the little D2 Addressed the mind problem and Warf goes to like drink with dax and Bemoan the tough spot his brother is in And what she comes up with is real fucked up Yeah, it really is and the idea is. Who is complicit in this idea is fucked. Who is not involved at all in this idea is also fucked.

Right. Because Dax has proposed killing Kern without actually killing him. As far as we know, right? Kern isn't a party to this decision. Nope. It's like murdering someone's mind. Right. Why would Bashir agree to do this? This would have been so much more interesting if Kern was party to this, because it would

be okay if he were. If Kern was like, yeah, do it. Like, destroy my mind. And then they went ahead and did it, then the same same outcome happens and it feels a little better because it part of it is his choice. Yeah, but they do this to him instead of with him and that makes this plan super dark. There's an argument to be made that he is so like beyond help that. beyond help that it needs to be this way. Like you could kinda make the argument that Worf is doing what Kern asked him to do in killing his mind. Yeah.

But it doesn't make any sense that Bashir would agree to be part of it without Kern expressly. Like what they should have is like some kind of like ritual contract that they sign and then like make secret in some interesting cling-on-y way. It feels like as someone who practices medicine, there should be some things that you do as a doctor that rise to command level permission, and I think destroying a patient's mind should rise to that level. I think Cisco needs to be involved. Right.

Before they lobotomize Kern, you know? Yeah. Also I would prefer if you do it with an ice pick. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. It seems I've been on the show enough times that a clip show device might be usable.

And it's weird, right, that they do it off screen too. You never see the device, you never see, you know, the sparkle in his eye fade. It's just sort of a thing that they talk about and it's a thing that happens off screen. And then the next time you see it, it has like different loaf. Yeah, like they need to do three things to them. It's a thing that happens off screen. And then the next time you see it, I mean, it has like different loaf. Yeah, like they need to do three things to them. It's a loaf transplant. It's it's changing

his genetic code and it's wiping his memory. I've got to believe that like there's a deception in this that is dishonorable on some level, right? Yet that's never referred to in any way. Yet that's never referred to in any way. I mean, it sort of seems like the elevator going to every floor in the building on Shabbos because you're not supposed to push the button. Kind of a loophole. Like sometimes when you're like religion doesn't map that well onto the world you find yourself into, you just have to find workarounds. Yeah. Like there was a lot that is extraordinary here,

up to and including the fact that just like a friend of their dads comes and is like, I am your dad and you forgot everything, but I'll teach you every, like, what was this guy doing that he was like available to just come out of retirement and, and rehabilitate current. I think we need more time with Nagra.

I think that is super clear. Like this guy would be fun to see Nag meet Nagra. Yeah, yeah, it's a real uma Oprah situation. Whatever you're saying. Yeah. The button on the episode is this moment where Kern, who is now Rodeck wakes up

Meet's Nagra and then on his way out of the infirmary is like hey, who are you? He looks at Warf and he's like do I know you and Warf is like I don't know you and I don't have a family And that's it way to make it about yourself I'm the one suffering from amnesia. Your bedside manner leaves much to be desired. And it's like kind of the end of the incredible Hulk war flocks out of the infirmary and into a wide shot on the promenade. You know, away from one family and into what to be considered

another. But, you know, neither family is a family that he wants a relationship with. He's just utterly alone and it's by choice. Yeah. Pretty dark ending. Did you like the episode Adam? What I liked most of all was David Livingston's direction. This looked visually like a fairly unique episode in terms of its interesting angles and its framing and its lighting. I really liked it and I really like latched on to some of the interesting compositions that he did. I mean, I love Kern. I think it's a little bit of a retread every time he shows up and he just makes fun of war for how soft he's gotten But this time maybe more than any other he really gets to war with how soft he's become like wharf Has a conversation with dax at one point. He's like you know, I used to be able to tell

When someone was trying to kill me just by looking at someone that's a cling on superpower Like you look at someone's eyes and you can tell if they're trying to kill you and I don't have that anymore. And that was an interesting bit of Klingon trivia that I don't think we've gotten before. I like to see non-human values and human values collide and they really fucking collide in this episode in a way that is uncomfortable for so many people. Yeah, I started to talk about it a little bit in the thing, but like one position Cisco gets in, which is interesting, you know, given his place in history as a Star Trek captain,

especially is that he's like, I can't tolerate this amount of cultural diversity or like there's like, there are limits to tolerance of cultural diversity or like there's like there are limits to tolerance of cultural diversity. Yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a hard thing to say. Yeah, I'm sad that this is the last appearance of Kern. I really like that scene where the little D detonates one mine and as a warning and then detonates a whole sequence of them like that seemed like a unique and fun effect and I liked that it was Kira that did it it's like flushing fessence yeah I'd like to see Kira in the chair more like

running the tea I think that's fun but yeah I think all in all like adding all of those things up I think it adds up in doing episode that I liked what about you I really like the episode I think it makes the case for current being a great character and it is a real shame that it ends his character. Yeah. I feel like there's a way to find a solution to this problem. For how many more seasons there are in Deep Space Nine and with how great Tony Todd is,

like there are ways to bring him back and make it interesting. Sure. Bring back Nogra too. Yeah. Nogra seems really interesting. It's an interesting place to put a dead end for a character. I'll say that. I agree.

You know, Ben, one area of our show that is never a dead end is the endless spring of priority one messages. That's true. You want to see what we have over there? I would love to. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. You need a supplement on that.

supplement? supplement. supplement. Yeah it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship! You know, endless spring is the brand of soap that I buy. It's a generic version of Irish spring, and it's a tremendous value. Yeah, you buy it by the bail at Costco.

You have to cut your own bars. You get it in just one giant bar, and you've got to cut the little bars up. They give you one of those weird wire cutters. Uh-huh. Yeah, like cutting cheese. Yeah. Adam, we have a couple of priority one messages here. The first is of a commercial nature. Oh. It goes like this.

12-D jazz horse lovers. If you more in the passing of genuine, or have been attacked by cougars, you won't like the Fantasy Western series The Devil's Revolver by Fiesta McGrand. Eddie Alabama is on a desparado quest to save her sister. At her side, a cursed gun that ages her a year for every life she takes. And the body counts rising.

The Devil's Revolver books 1-3 are available now. Visit devilsrevolver.com and look for cameos by Ben and Adam in book 4, The Legend of Diablo Coming in 2019. What? What? Shit! Wow! Damn.

Oh, check out the author. This is VS McGrath Yeah, she is She's someone I'm familiar with on Twitter. She's actually yeah, she's actually a good Twitter commenter Wow Just a cover art alone is really cool looking. Yeah Whoa That's cool. Nate. Oh, I love the premise. Yeah. Yeah, I like that a lot That's cool. Nate, oh, I love the premise, too.

Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot. So visit devilsrevolver.com for excerpts and reviews of the devils revolver series and get involved. We're going to be in this thing. Wow. I mean, maybe, maybe Genuine lives on. I mean, who knows? That's right.

That's what you get to do when you're an author. You get to write real life wrongs Like the death of genuine Yeah Ben our second priority one messages of a personal nature is from Matt H And this message is for victims of imposter syndrome the message goes like this in DS9 S3 E21 Around the one hour ten minute and 15 second mark. Adam said, quote, those guys are the kind of smart, fast, funny that I aspire to be.

Unquote, then Ben agreed. I'd like to point out that within the first 5 minutes of S3-E22, you are throwing off references to the Oregon Trail and the death of R-Tax like it's nothing. I've got news, you are that funny keep it up Oh Thanks Matt H. I guess we are victims of imposter syndrome sometimes yeah, I mean I feel like Anytime you're doing a creative endeavor. It's it's endemic to that kind of work a little bit I think I've just lived my life on this show with the thinking that like if I can just be funny to Ben,

I can be satisfied in that. But that is, I'm frequently surprised and grateful that anyone else gets anything out of this show, so that's nice to hear. Thanks Matt. It's really, really kind of you. Something I've thought a lot about is that, like, nothing anybody can tell you can prepare you for what it is like to have anyone outside of your self, care about the work you're doing.

Well, it is like such a, it's something you just have to learn, you know, by doing. And if we let little misgivings like that fly sometimes, you know, I think that's just us being honest about our internal lives with everybody listening. Yeah, well put. Not necessarily like a thing we're proud of or anything, but I don't know what I'm trying to say. It's complicated.

Yeah. Well, if you would like to complicate our lives by getting a priority one message, you can add do maximumfund.org slash gembo-tron. Yeah, complicate some cash in our pockets. Yeah, 100 bucks for a personal message and 204 commercial message. And we really appreciate the folks that do that. Thank you very much.

A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post-show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it. The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023,

and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info. That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests, and bring them down to our level.

We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards. Pat Noswald. Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org.

Look, your podcast apps are already open, just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I've got to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I?

These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short neck. But I'm hearing we need to get on this. We've got to get on the art. It is about terrain, thought is about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah?

Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ohno Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two.

What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. dot org Hey Adam. What is that, Ben? Did you find yourself a drunker? Drunker moda! Drunker moda! My Shemota occurs at a time that you can't see and I My Shimoda occurs at a time that you can't see and I I mean I understand you can't see every moment of action on this show But I ache to have seen the Baselick that shot Kern and What happened exactly in that moment because like Odo describes the scene. He's like look

That Baselick could not even hold his, his disruptor straight. Like he was fucked up and like shitting himself when he shot Kern. Are you picturing like a thing where he pulled it out and then Kern like slowly walked towards him and reached out and like put his thumb on the guy's trigger finger and hold it for him. Yeah. Like there is a scene there that is incredible that we don't get. And I'm sad that we don't get it, but I play it in my mind. And when I do so, the Baselik is my Shimoda. What have I you been?

In the last shot, as Kern now, a different guy walks off, there's a packlet among the people walking around on the promenade. And the packlet looks like he is holding a bunch of salumi, like some like cave aged Italian sausages. And I just like, I was like, yeah, a packlet probably would have like a whole bunch of cured meat that he would wanna take from place to place. Sausages are good.

Sausages make me feel full. We look for sausages. I love seeing packlets on this show. I mean, from what we learned about packlets on TNG, like they almost would seem to be the largest population on the station. Yeah. Given the trade interests that they have.

Right, they're around, man. Yeah. You totally see them. Yeah. Well, Ben, what do we have coming up on the next episode? The next episode is season four, episode 15, the Bar Association. Tired of workplace mistreatment at the hands of his brother,

Ram organizes all of course employees into a union, Bar Association. Tired of workplace mistreatment at the hands of his brother, Ram organizes all of Cork's employees into a union and goes on strike against the bar. Wow. Wow. What a timely episode. Yeah, fun. I'm into that.

I'm ready to get fired up for workers' rights. How about you? Yeah. This is gonna be an episode that alienates a lot of people, but none of those people would ever listen to our show. Ha ha ha ha. Very cool. Alright, I'm gonna head to our...

our game that we always play at the end of these shows. Uh, you guys can find it at Gach. That biz slash game. You're, of course, speaking of game of buttholes. We all love the profits, aren't you? Of course I am, Adam. And I see that we are currently on square 14. Oh well, that's convenient. We're on square 14 for episode 14.

Hmm. How do you like that? I like it a lot. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. All right, I'm gonna roll. Got the dice in my hands. You want to just give this a puff? Tula! Did I win?

Harvey! I rolled a three landing us on square 17, doorstep of a quirk's bar, but this is a reg app. You know what always happens, man? I always roll ones. So the drunk episode is almost a certainty. The episode after this one.

That's what I would say. I mean, that's how probability works. Yep. You know how the end of our show works, Ben, is we think a lot of people. We do. I think the people we owe the greatest things to are the people that go to maximumfund.org slash donate and contribute to support the show on a monthly basis. It's the reason that this is our main job now.

And we really, really appreciate everyone that does that. Of course, if you're not in a position financially to support, there's lots of other ways that you can help us out. You can tell a friend or coworker or family member if you think they would like to show recommended to people and also recommended online using social media, using the hashtag greatestgen or going to Apple Podcasts and leave in a nice review. Yeah, you know what's crazy is like you look at the metrics for the show and it

continues to grow beyond all reason or understanding. I don't know why. If you use the overcast app on iOS, which is a great pod catcher app, I think I have a feature now where you can bounce out a minute of audio from a podcast and video form, and it makes a little video graphic of what the show art is and you can share that on social media. It's a really fun way to isolate a favorite moment from the show or something. If something makes you laugh, if you think other people would like it, share it online using that little little feature. Yeah, I love sharing clips. That's fun. Super fun. And we've seen a few on social media already and it is really delightful to see what people pick.

If only I could share a clip of Bill Tilly or JJ Lendell, I would, but that's not how it works when we thank them for the work that they do for our show. JJ Lendell makes fun movie style posters for every episode that we release. And Bill Tilly releases a trading card style, pieces of artwork with custom jokes

that are just the best weekend and week out. And we appreciate their efforts both. Indeed we do. Hey, I just want to throw this out there. Doing a wellness check for Raz and Plavim. I'm just going to like put that out into the world. Haven't heard from either of them in a while. Hope they're good.

Yeah. We should thank Adam Ragusia, who made all the custom theme music for our show, and dark material, who made the original Picard song, which was the original theme music for our show. And all the great folks at MaximumFun.org that help us with putting the show together every week. And go go check out other shows on MaximumFun.org, including Friendly Fire, which is our Warmovie podcast we do with John Roderick. It's on tour right now. Go check out FriendlyFire.fm slash live if you're interested in seeing us live on tour doing

something not this. We've not made plants tour greatest gen, so this may be your only chance in a while to see us. Come out and see us. We'd love to see you. Come, see us. And with that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9, and an episode of the greatest generation Deep Space 9, which seizes the means of production. Hell yeah! You better do one thing during the next episode, Ben.

You better be wearing your fucking sabo. And you better be ready to throw him. Hence the word sabotage. I would draw a fairly bright line between Luddites and workers who are trying to have a good contract with their employer, Adam. Look, I don't think all people in the labor movement are anti-technology. I'm saying it might come to the point of of throwing your Sebo into the machine.

Okay, I mean I'll wear him just in case. I'm not taking Cebo off the table. That's what I'm trying to say. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Make it sound. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artists-owned, audience supported. Maximumfund.org.

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